RADIO AND ITS RECEIVERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 77, 22 June 1927, Page 11

RADIO AND ITS RECEIVERS

Conducted for THE SUN By C. H. Taylor, B.Sc., A.M.I.R.E.

notes and comments

AUCKLAND LISTENERS’ LEAGUE The league/ with its rapid growth, is now over the thousand mark, and is surely an indication of an earnest desire to see broadcasting on a satisfactory basis. The policy to be put to the meeting on Tuesday night (whieh will be over when this is read) is favouring Government control on the lines of the British Control Board system. Now this system is not exactly a Statecontrolled organisation. This may be seen by the personnel of the board: The Earl of Clarendon, chairman , Lord Gainford, vice-chairman, and who was chairman of the old 8.8. C., Sir George Nairn, an ex-governor of the Bank of England, Dr. Ren dell, exheadmaster of Winchester, and Mrs. Philip Snowden, wife of the Labour loader. This corporation was organised as the result of a committee appointed by the Postmaster-General. The governors hold office for five years, but actually, the Royal Charter notifying their appointment gives them a ten-year tenure of office, after which time the whole matter is to be again reviewed. The board has wide powers, but the Fostmaster-General still exercises, as in the days of the company, a supervisory right in relation to the broadcasting of controversial and political matter. While the board is not strictly speaking a Government concern, the Postmaster-General is vested with supreme authority concerning any and every means of cqmmunication in the United Kingdom, and the Post-master-General will act as spokesman and answer any questions concerning broadcasting which may be put to him from the House of Commons.

EXTREME. SELECTIVITY The writer has been experimenting over the week-end with a device called the “pre-selector,” for which some remarkable results are claimed. The device is an oscillator valve coupled to •> first detector valve, resulting in a back frequency which is passed into the receiving set via the aerial terminal. The tuned circuits of the receiver are set to resonance at some frequency below that of the broadcast band, and amplified by the radio frequency valves, after which the receiver detector “re-detects” —if such a word exists —and passes the signals on to the audio amplifiers. In short, an adaptation of the super-hetrodyne principle. The results from the point of view of selectivity were remarkable, and it took ten minutes to find IYA, who came in at the full volume, but as a distance getter it seemed to lack punch, but that was most likely unfamiliarity with the device, which was not used for more than half an hour. Further reports will be given and if completely satisfactory full details of the circuit, coils, etc., as well as one or two simplifications which have occurred to the writer. RADIO VARIETIES NOVEL TESTS OF VOICE In an interesting series of voice and personality tests conducted recently by the Brit'sh stations, it was found that 65 per cent, of the listeners could identify a clergyman by his. voice and 85 per cent, recognised an actor after he had stepped to the microphone and sent his voice over the ether. Other occupations, however, were not so readily identified by the thousands of listeners who participated in these tests. Nine persons, each of a different occupation or profession, did the broadcasting, but only the minister and the actor were recognised by the majority. That the voice is not an index of age was also discovered by the tests, which show that few were correct in their estimates, but the average listener was within 15 years in every case. WELLINGTON LISTENERS MEET THE COMPANY An informal conference was held between the executive of the Wellington Radio Society and the two directors of the company. Many proposals were discussed and the outcome seems to be a very big improvement for the

Wellington listeners, who have had a very lean time during the last two years. Readers will remember the question of a trained radio engineer, which was put forward by Auckland in the early days and the position seems more acute than ever, particularly as it is stated that a silent day is necessary for weekly overhaul of the plant. If station equipment such as at IYA, 3YA and the later 2YA needs and will need a weekly overhaul it is surely time a first-class radio engineer was employed to correct this fault, which is not apparent in similar stations abroad. NEW ZEALAND EXPERT APPOINTED The Broadcasting Company is to be congratulated on acquiring the services of Mr. L. Slade, of Christchurch, whose name will be remembered as an enthusiastic member of the New Zealand Radio Institute, a technical society situated in Christchurch. Mr. Slade’s position is superintendent of stations and his duties will be the coordination of the operations of the four stations and to bring them up to their maximum efficiency, tie will alsc represent the company at the deliberations of the various listeners’ leagues and he will be a sort of liason officer between the company and the listeners. PORTABLE SETS CAUSE BOOM IN ENGLAND A. boom is being experienced in England at the present time, and the major portion of this popularity is making itself felt in the sale of portable receivers. It would seem that the portable receiver is to be the instrument most in favour with the listening public in the future. The many advantages of the “portable,” over and above its simplicity for outdoor entertainment —its neat and in many cases artistic appearance, complete absence of outside connections, batteries and cords; in brief, its compactness—are all being realised by the English public. Much of the above will appeal to the local listener, especially the compactness and the appearance, but with us the portable receiver must be capable of receiving our neighbours across the Tasman, whose stunts and attractive programmes are sought by most listeners; and this is demanding much of a small set, but it will undoubtedly come and in the near future too. A NOVEL SCHEME Of all people to whom radio is a boon, the blind are those to whom this wonder of modern science is the greatest blessing. In England free licences are granted and one large concern has outlined the following scheme. Briefly, every purchaser of an expensive set is allowed a discount of £1 for his crystal set and phones, these are renovated, which is not a big job, and reinstalled free in the homes of blind people. Several Auckland dealers have donated sets to the Jubilee Institute, where their generosity has had its true reward. A MUDDLED RECIPE A young bride asked her husband to copy a wireless recipe she wanted. He did his best, but got two stations at once, one of which was broadcasting “physical jerks” and the other the recipe. His effort was as follows: “Hands on hips, place one cup of flour on the shoulders, raise knees and depress toes, and mix thoroughly in half a cup of water. Repeat six times. Inhale quickly one half teaspoon of baking powder, lower the legs and mash two hard-boiled eggs in a sieve. Exhale, breathe naturally and sift into a bowl! Attention! Lie flat on the floor and roll the white of an egg till it boils. In ten minutes remove from the fire and rub smartly with a rough towel. Breathe raturally, dress in warm flannels and serve with fresh soup.” CONTINENTAL PROGRAMMES Following the success of the London double rebroadcast the Philips experimental station, PCJJ, hopes to relay via 2BL, Sydney programmes from Radio-Paris, Voxhau (Berlin) and Radio-Wien (Vienna) —all in the same night. London will also be heard again before long. STATIC ELIMINATION Promise of eventual elimination of static, which v has been very had lately, comes from Dr. Austin, of the Bureau of Standards. During recent months scientists have discovered a close relationship between static and solar activities. This relationship when completely understood will give scientists something real on which to base there research into a means of preventing static from interfering with radio communication. Readers will be pleased to know that their representative, Mr. G. Mcß. Salt, M. has received a communication from the P. and T. Department submitting to him for comment a new scheme of wave-lengths for the New Zealand stations. The proposed alterations are a big improvement, but one would like to see a little more consideration given to Auckland, which has the majority of licensees. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS N. Walding, Mt. Eden. —I am not clear as to whether you use plug in coils of few turns in aerial, grid and radio frequency transformer circuits, or whether you keep some or all of the colls covering the broadcast band. I would like this information before making any comment. ROUND THE RADIO TRADE One of the neatest things in terminals was seen locally. It consisted of a spring clip socket with a firm and neat fastening for flex and a small grooved knob threaded to take the standard American B battery binding post. The “Rajah” terminal can be got in red, black and nickel finish and should prove a boon to the set user and experimenter alike. THE SUN was given a large Crossley Musicone speaker to try out, and the results were most gratifying. Appearance and tone were excellent, and the speaker had a rather pleasant but very slight muffled effect, which, while not detracting in the least degree from quality and tone of musical notes, certainly made the clash of static more endurable. The electrical characterisatics of the

speaker caused it to give very slightly superior results on an American set to those on an English one, and this is often the case, and vice versa, where the speaker is designed primarily, but not essentially, to be used with a particular type of set.